She Who Provides
by A Girl That Writes
Summary: This is a tribute to Paisleyrose... I've followed her stories for years, now I am writing my own.
1. Chapter 1

A Tribute to the Scribe.

(Jim Henson has full rights to this.. I just borrowed the idea.)

_I've followed PaisleyRose's stories over the years, from childhood to adulthood, and now I have something that I hope she will read, for her own enjoyment._

_That is the reason I wrote this story._

Time begins slowly a single circle that continued until things escalated beyond what they had been before. From the moment of memory had they been the spinners of this entangled element, and even as it began they became entrenched within the story that it started to spin.

They being the beginning, and yet beyond it; not creators but those that simply watched beyond the scope of its making and outside of the makers scope of reality. In this place beyond our world, that came into being without time and outside of it was where this circle of things and the moments cascading through it began.

The creator had no power outside of his creation, and thus began drifting into his own series of dreams, and these dreams became the life that started our world. The galaxy had her own scope of things to mend and create so this one little part of the existance of things had its own story to tell. From these dreams the creatures started to spin their own understandings and their image changed from time into time... until some of them become so wrapped into the dreams that were this world they became a part of it, and thus lost their place outside of time itself.

These beings truly split from their own when a creature started walking upon the land that was similar in form to them, or on they liked to hold. This being worshipped and reviered those that wandered into their world. And they the holders of time became complacent and remained with those two legged beings.

Time passed and their powers dwindled.. before it was too late for them to realize what had happened. Each one of these few discovered the truth, they could not stop the passage of time now from ravaging their own forms. They were aging, and then they learned how to create more of their own kind, for in the beginning they had taken the forms of these two legged creatures but only as the stronger of the two.. males.

Females of the short lived spieces could be used to repopulate their numbers, and over time the origins of what they had been was forgotten, and these their offspring hid away in the strange lands that were a part and yet appart from the world.

That is how in the scope of things, those we call the fae came to exist. That is also how the powers we know ceased to interact with our lives... it is also how one such pocket of existance came into being, the magic as we call it or power of these beings warping the world around them creating small kingdoms hidden form the naked eye.

That is how.. after thousands of years though these creatures had long sinced stopped interacting with humans in one kingom of this place beyond the mists came into power with the Goblins, and their King.

The kingdom being one of the last still connected to the ancient power of time, and its young king, watched the world of man with speculative eyes. Long since forgetting how it all began, but curious as ever as to why these small beings with little to no power still held the dominant place upon the world.

He remembered the one he had called father, now seated upon the throne in another realm; the greatest of them all, and perhaps the eldest. His queen a bright star, but not the young male's mother. No he was a product of something else another chance happenstance here within this kingdom. The need to keep the lines and powers strong the male that was his father had abandoned him here where his mother had sat. Among these races after all, power was more important, and love was thing all but unknown forgotten in the trials of keeping the race alive.

He had never met the one that had birthed him. He had always been here among those like himself, dark dismal but a part of things that he understood. Young females had come across his home, but he had entertained none of them, despite the call for his duty to be done. Like the old ways of mankind, they kept to the castles and the ways of the serf and master. Ladies had come to his home... and expected a warm welcome; perhaps a marriage of state to keep borders settled.

That wasn't how things worked here in this place, it was older than that and things formed and unformed like dreams; here time was fragmented and the youth could travel to his childhood whenever he liked... just by passing through a part of the twisted maze that made up the kingdom.

This was where thing had begun. Here things changed as they were needed, as he was needed and a legend that had always been and always would be remained. This was the Labyrinth the place where it had all started. Once a garden of untold beauty.. now a twisted place of dangerous beauty, but the wild eyed one could see the delight here.

Time passed and he wasn't lonely, he had the small creatures that laughed and danced with him, and then he learned another duty that of the call that came that prompted him to take another shape one that delighted him and gave him new power. Flight and freedom into the world outside of the place he called home.

From this excursion he learned to be a trickster and a game player, and earned the right to take the youth of those poor pitiful creatures home. If he won the game he gained another playmate. Another twisted creature that was happier in the labyrinth than it had been at home.

Some became goblins, some faeries... all some magical creature that needed the labyrinth to survive. He had no control over that, what the heart of the won children desired they became, and that was the way this place worked. His power was that over it, controlling it and working with it, to make things what they should be.

And so this continued for time until time ended.. Era after Era of mankind, and his kingdom grew, larger and larger its scope changing into something else that had never been. Creeping ever outward till the borders reached the mist itself. As time passed so did the youth change, for though unaging his mind grew and his needs did as well. When he required knowlege the labyrinth provided opening the liberaries of the world and all the great works that his own people and that had been collected over the ages appeared.

So he learned the magics of Merlin, and the works of Shakesphere. He followed the life of Arthur as it began and ended... and he became a scholar.

When the armies of the other kingdoms threatened his borders the Labyrinth provided a general, in the form of an old knight who had once seated at the tables of kings in the older days... he was granted the form of a fox, and became the guardian of the kingdom, and under his rule of the goblin army the war was won.

The young king elder now was given everything he needed to survive, so it is little wonder than he became a cruel and rather spoiled monarch? Yet Canny and quick minded, calous and incapable of any true feeling at all.

And when after a thousand years he began to yearn for company other than the children he stole away in the night... was it any surprise that the Labyrinth again provided? In the form of a dreaming child... who in thought and deed was just like the Monarch himself?

Of course she provided... he was her son after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Watched By Eyes Unseen

_A Wheel spins due to forces that cannot be stopped save by letting it slow down; Your own fate is likewise it cannot be stopped by moving.. only by standing still._

_ ~The thoughts of a Young King._

The girl was a babe when the old mind fell upon her, eyes of green filled with the tears and remorse of a young thing_,_ and the thought that when a thing ended it has ended forever. It was this very thing that at first caused the mind to pass over her. The female mentality one that thought in long ponderous thoughts, and found the mind unequated with the one she was seeking to match.

The second time around having passed through the thoughts of many since then years as we understand them having passed as well; the mind of the Labyrinth found a startling revelation in this young creatures thoughts. A wonder of the world that was lacking in many of this age in the generation of man that had sprung up in this new century. Her dreams vivid and imaginative, she was an outcast among her own kind.

The Labyrinth began to watch entranced as the life of the girl before her unfolded.

The first day to school, a day of dread and imagination. The school bus transformed into a carriage of a young princess and the days followed much in this pattern. The girl learned more elaborate ways of bringing magic into her ordinary world. She herself was completely ordinary none of the blood of the other race like the Labyrinth herself but in her mind magic was formed.

Ordinary things became mystical realms and objects, ordinary happenings became something of unique wonder and imagination. Even as the girl grew did her imagination expand; and despite trials of time and error, the loss of her mother and the remarriage of her father. Even the introduction of the young brother into her life, created a world of imagination and delight for the Labyrinth to watch and discover.

And though her presence might have been missed for a time by her offspring; she herself found a life that she wanted too see and a child she wanted to see succeed as she had helped her own son to do so. So into her hands and her life fell a small red book; emblazoned with the title that she had given herself 'The Labyrinth' leaving the imagination of the girl to see it as she would.

And the book brought magic into the Girl's drab world, and a wish brought to her lips allowed the young king to meet the creature that was his match but far to old to keep.. and to young t o hold. That night would change the girls outlook and the King's as well.

So do Mothers meddle in the lives of their children... so often and so well understood.

The girl as planned won the child back from the Goblin King; and created a legend of her own in his mind. For this time the Labyrinth didn't give the spoiled king what he wanted, and left him wanting for the not the child that got away... but the Girl he couldn't keep.

That girl's name emblazoned the lives of the creatures that dwelled within the old Labyrinth and the land... Sarah... and her dreams echoed within the pools that appeared after her departure.

For with the Girl had gone some of the power of the Labyrinth... who had in bringing her into herself; started the changes that the girl's own dreams and wishes desired. Bringing us to where this story truly begins.

Her eyes opened to the light of day, finally a peaceful place where she had all to herself. Outside of the domain that was her step-mother's; despite the peace that they had managed to build over the years between the two of them; it was hers and no one could change that. The eyes belonged to a dark haired young woman who I am sure we all can guess who she might be.

The place was a small appartment on the edge of a dreary old town in the northern part of England called York; far away from where she had begun indeed. She had long since grown into a bright eyed adult with a longing to explore everything old that she could find. A degree and beyond that in Medieval history of Europe had landed her a job here working in the museum along the wall.

It wasn't much but it was in a place where she had always longed to be, and the small cottage hers and all hers curtesy of her father and his pride in his daughter's success.

An old dream and a small grin brought to her face as she reminded again of the strange experience she had had as a child and still attibuted to her own wild dreaming of her youth. Yet her eyes are still those of a dreamer, of a creature untamed by the time and age that had passed.

So into the countryside she went.. and on the old road up to the town and along the wall that encircled it. Slowly just enjoying the moment and the movement of a new place in her eyes. The old dreams and imagination starting to stir as she watched in her head the faeries dance within the fields and the sturdy little gnomes work in their trees.

The grin has hardly left her face as she walks unknowingly watched by unseen eyes; this time not the old one for she had long since gone home just waiting for the moment. No these are the eyes of a creature bound and hoping for mischeif. As small hands and small feet scurry about whispering...

The raven haired girl is comepletely unknowing as she walks still amidst her fields and trees lost in the imaginings that go along with the stirrings of her life. The whispers passing through her ears but unheard as she follows finally the path to the wall, and into the place that now is entrusted to her care.

The small eyes though and the small voices whisper amongst themselves... lost in conversations that go along the lines of something like this...

"Its the Girl."

"It is the Girl.. the one that beat the King."

"The one that won the Child."

"The one that went away."

"Should we tell?"

"Should we tell..."

"He should know..."

"Tell the King."

"The Girl is in his home."

"Tell the king..."

The whispers continue, the mutters pass and the creatures scurry along the way grins on strange faces at the news. The King had no way to touch the girl in the other place... but in this one the old place he still had power. So did these small creatures of his. ..

Her day was simple, meet the guests and tell the stories she had learned by heart. Travel the wall again and again, go beneath and explain the battlements and the old places. It was a joy to tell these stories she had learned and often embelished to her tourists. They left with smiles and the intent to learn more. She left day in and day out the same way.

Blissfully happy with the life she now lead. If only she knew that things could not stay this way... could not remain as simple and peaceful as it was now. For the Eyes kept watching and waiting for a moment when she would stray the wrong way. That moment came sooner than they would have expected and to the delight of an new pair of eyes that began watching under the stars at night... the owl that had begun lurking in the tree outside the windows, the girl would dream. Dreams she couldn't remember, but always cried out from.

Then one night she left the place of safety like all naive things tend to do, and that is where her horror and pain would begin. For stepping into a world of fantasy without the slightest knowlege of what was true and what wasn't, was the downfall of many a young thing. Like a young rabbit, unwary of the wolf.

The night was lovely, a rare day without the rain and the stars were out in scores beyond any she had ever seen. It seemed little a trouble to go down to the nearby pub and sit with a pint of cider and simply watch the stars. When a strange walked out of the shadows the young thing simply smiled with innocent eyes; not knowing the rule of such things.

He wasn't a very tall fellow, but he had a bright smile and strangely compelling eyes that almost seemed familiar in the pale light. His words pleasant and calming she found herself answering without understanding exactly what she had said. Another drink in her hand before she knew it she was laughing along with him at a strange joke just uttered, and his quaint old accent sent sparks of warning into her mind that she didn't heed.

"What is a young American woman like yourself doing in a boring place such as this?" Was a question he finally asked of her with a strange tilt of his head.. wild hair blowing ever so lightly in a wind that didn't seem to quite be there.

Her answer took a moment before she finally responded... "I'm looking for fantasy, and a place that is so flooded with it in its history cannot be at all boring now can it?" Her gentle eyes laughing at his absurd question, and delighting in the thrill that his ready and almost cruel grin brings her.

A scratch of his head and a chin in his hand as the grin becomes a full out smile.. "Fantasy is it my dear? I know of plenty I could show you out here... things that you have never seen before."

A thrill of warning, that again she doesn't heed... not noticing the world around her isn't quite the same as it was when the night began. The Pub seems more distant and the pint in her hand is empty though it wasn't before and a head spinning as she looks at it in confusion... before responding, "What do you mean?"

The stranger laughs as he hands her another glass this time filled, as he holds out his hand.."Take a sip.. and take a walk with me and I'll show you."

Her smile comes back, and the warning in the back of her skull forgotten she took a sip of the drink, and accepted his hand and took her final steps out of our world and into a strangers.

After all, the spoiled King never forgets, and never lets a score remain unsettled.


	3. Chapter 3

A Place Lost In Time

_"Time is but a reconstruction of what once was, and what always has been. It circles endlessly, but mankind seems to think it goes in but one direction so time as it is today is but a construction of the imagination of Man."_

_ ~The Thoughts of a Young King_

She woke slowly as if from a dream that wouldn't end, the warning that had been twinging around in the back of her skull back with a vengence as it circled like a vulture louder than her own rapid heartbeat. This was wrong, the whole situation and the feeling of the place around her. Yet it was as familiar as her own breath, as the cold air that circled around her.

A memory of a dream resurfaced, reminding her of a younger self and a terrifying journey that she had in her adulthood attributed to an overly imaginative younger mind. Yet the undeniable proof was under her hands, in the dirt of the place she found herself. Tangled roots touching her feet and the dark stranger standing not far ahead.

No stranger now, as memories resurface, the mismatched eyes burning into her skull and through to her soul...

"Hello again Sarah, have you realized what has happened now?" His head tilted in that same way, as a crystal dances idle through his fingertips... the King, the one who started this whole thing, or rather who helped her begin it through the story she had read.

Lips move but words don't come, as her fingers dig through the dirt searching for reality where it could not be found. The pint glass still in her hand as she slowly remembers a warning in the old book... "Do not eat of the world of Faerie, or be lost there forever."

Before the Peach had been between her lips... but that was a fruit of her world not his... the drink he had given her was of his. Her mistake was evident, she wasn't in her world, she was in the other one..

"Labyrinth..." A word finally spilt between her lips, a ragged whisper that echos in her head just as the laugh that follows does, the cold laughter that she so well remembers now as the mists of time fade the shattered memory shift.

"Yes the Labyrinth precious, the place where dreams spin and are so often forgotten; And where our story began. I think its time we started over again from that same beginning don't you?" He turned his head out towards the land as what appeared to be the sun rose over the terrible beauty of the Labyrinth as he began speaking once more over the terrified gasps of the girl that was now struggling to her feet.

"We started in this place all these years ago my dear, if you recall the place... and the creatures you met. It was here you learned my name, and the truth of what you once simply imagined day by day. Yet despite coming here.. and supposedly winning you let what we are slip through your fingers and called it a dream."

His hand snakes out and grabs her by the collar of the dress she is wearing pulling her close a snarl on his face and a grasp that is far from tender or gentle.. "You forgot us... you forgot me. Yet here you are again.. the triumphant champion of the Labyrinth... and all you can do is shake and shiver like a child. Where is the bravado that once flowed through your veins... and the wild nature that challenged me over and over again."

A toss against the tree and she falls once again, but this time the fury of his words sparks something long since distant and she snaps, snarling back as she rises to her own feet. No words spoken but her glare spoke volumes... and it sparked a grin on the face of the one who called himself King.

"Thats what I remember... and now we'll test this new resolve of yours though... this time you aren't running the Labyrinth. Rather this is your new home..." A flick of his hand, and a small orb rests at her feet... his eyes cold and hard as he whispers.. "I'd keep that with you were I you Sarah sweet, otherwise the Beasties of this place might find you just as sweet a morsel as I myself do."

He leans close a hand tracing her face before he just vanishes leaving her there under the tree with the Sun overhead at the mercies of the land that he ruled. Revenge perhaps in the sweetest sense punishment without the touch of a hand.

Large eyes turn in her skull, as the memories of warning that had all been prompted by this one fellow caused the girl to curse herself profusely for ignoring the signs. Once again she was within the Goblin Kingdom, only this time if HIS word were to be believed there was no escape and no child to be won back.

"Come on feet... lets move on again, maybe old friends wait for us here."

And so she walked towards the gate of the Labyrinth towards what appeared to be a stooped old Dwarf spraying at the faeries. But this old dwarf wrinkled and though familiar to the eye turned for a moment to simply sneer at the girl before turning away. Shock in her mind as she yelled out ..

"Hoggle... HOGGLE!" Running and then tripping as the faeries he sprays dart around her hissing softly. Things have changed, the truth clicks... she is no longer a child she is no longer safe from the dangers of the maze.

The dwarf stands over her a glare in his eye... "If it isn't the pretty missy that made us all dance to her tune the last time she came here. " A booted foot kicks out, and lands dead center of her chest knocking the wind from her lungs. Yet the swarm dart in and push the Dwarf away with snarls and snaps... perhaps last time he hadn't been as kind as he seemed, or as Cowardly. Often the dreams of those in the Labyrinth change it... but she isn't an outsider anymore.

The swarm dart around her... before flitting off leaving her alone in the clearing the Dwarf no longer in sight. Things weren't the same, that was certain and the winded young woman gets to her feet again to walk the familiar yet unfamiliar path.

Yet when she makes it to the gate, the gate is locked and no entry seems evident. She is trapped amidst the gardens to do as she may seeking searching for something that made any semblance of sense.

It seemed as if she had been walking forever, without an idea of where she might be going. Round a corner she watched as a younger self walked past the tree, battling the King.. Jareth with words and the defiance of a youth. Time made no sense here, she understood that now. Hunger was something she didn't quite heed, for it didn't quite make sense. Here and there she found a fruit bush of sorts, following a glittering fluttering fan fair of the swarm.

This time none bit her, but seemed to find her walk amusing and so they followed. The memory of what used to be passed her by in streams and pools of water. Her childhood, and her life from beginning to end. She watched as she walked forgetting why she was here, a speculative observer of her own life passing through a world of dreams.

As she walked she felt the strangest of things, and herself changing. Things around her became clearer; the meaning behind time itself clarified. As if within a classroom she absorbed the knowlege and moved on, becoming more than just Sarah and into the scope of her own dreams. In the scattered pools that showed no lingering images of her as she had been, she caught glimpses of the changes upon her person.

Hair growing longer than it ever should have naturally in such a 'short' period of time, eyes still like emeralds amidst a face that looked hardly human. Her body had grown lean, almost lacking in any of the curvature that it had once held, long and with a snap of wind through her hair like His. Claw like nails grace her fingers, and her skin pale as moonlight held a pattern about her eyes. Yet somehow this was only the beginning of things that were meant to change.

She understood in a rudimentary way that time in her world has passed, for what seemed like a moment in time to herself had begun to filter through and show the world as it progressed and those she knew died. This was meaningless now, at least for the moment. Her destination seemed much more important. Somehow walking as she had, she was within the maze yet not; not a part that HE was familiar with, and comforting at the same time.

Aware of her own anger that lingered at the thought of HIM, for to say his name as she knew would alert HIM to this part of the Labyrinth, that had become in essence Hers. A splintering branch within his own home for as the world changed her, so did she in turn change It. In this was the truth known of the Labyrinth; the old spirit was tired and in finding a companion for her Son, she found a replacement as well.

This was the heart of the old place, and the art of time strung through the ages by the one Eldest who had come through that took the form of the female of the species. Not the blood filtered through generations of imaginations and breeding. The true unchanging aspect of time that the nameless creature understood.

He had some aspects of this power, but now... it was the Girl the dreamer that the Old One had watched that took the place of this power. The dreams important to the forming of the place and that was the destination.

The Girl, Sarah's mind woke after this expanse of time older and wiser now with the knowlege of the Old One's interest in her and of what and why she had dreamed as she had. Her hair now down to her ankles glistened with the light of stars, large eyes held the power of the ancients and looked into eyes that were alike to her own.

No questions were asked, no answers given. As the Old faded into nothing, and the New one now with a name took up the spinning of the world yet with a small grin on her features. She was not more powerful, and had but a fraction of the power that the old one had held, for the old one now slept within the world her power extending out to the whole place.

Yet Sarah understood more, and the Irony of what was delighted her. The Goblin King had stolen her Mortality, and brought her here to let her change into a denizen of his domain as revenge for being spurned so long ago. Yet in doing so he had made an equal in his own kingdom, splitting it effectively in two. How would the King respond to a rival...

A hand danced up a prism of filtered light in her hand... as she began to watch and plot...

For the Girl once Stolen will always want Revenge.


	4. Chapter 4

~Where things go from here...~

(I've given the pretty prolouge to you my friends.. and now I will traverse the story in more plain speech, for though poetry is pretty... it has its place in the scheme of things.. and here is not it.)

~_Revenge... a taste for something in retribution against a previous aggressor; or perhaps just a game to be played. Either way its an enjoyable procress.~_

_ ~From the mind of she who was once Sarah Williams._

A twist of power, a change on the wind many things could have caused the change but that which surprised the Old King more was the moment of the change. The woodland king always knows what is happening within his kingdoms but not entirely what goes on outside of his kingdoms. Only the his link to his Boy told him the truth; the old lady of the Labyrinth was slumbering faded into the sleep that had taken so many of the oldest ones. In her place was a new taste of power as delicate as the touch of a butterfly upon the petals of a flower.

He felt the change that came slowly to the once mortal; changed as few could be changed. No fae but not mortal either, and the taste of her power was promising. A small lament to the wise old creature who had called for his aid in creating the Boy; and a smile for the wisdom that brought this Lady into the underground. Perhaps the Lady could make the Boy grow up; and learn a few new truths about his place in the scheme of things. For though he loved his son, he loved his home more.

Thus did Oberon sit and wait looking into the sphere of his power to watch the promising entertainment begin. It was not his place to interfer with the courtship rituals of two powers in an outside kindgom after all, and a piece of the Old Lady was with him still her soft delicate laughter ringing about his ears at the troubles that would soon touch her Son.

For even the Elders like to play games; and a Mother after all Knows best.

He just couldn't figure it out. Something had shifted and changed in his labyrinth; the comeforting presence was still there but the needs and the wishes he made went unkept save for the ones he created himself. His lands around his home were exactly the same, but the labyrinth had split into two. Gome were the magestic gardens, and the great statues and the hidden places he always ran to when he was most alone. They had just vanished gone in the blink of an eye, and this was something he couldn't understand. For a moment he thought of the Girl, her name delved deep into the bottom of his spoiled mind. She was supposed to be forgotten a memory he wouldn't touch, the memory of a playmate that actually played with him. Instead she was there on the edges of his conciousness so close he could almost taste her, but couldn't find.

It was beginning to drive him mad in a way that he hadn't been before. He had tried every way of thinking about it he could find, yet it made no sense and struck no cords. In all events fully a quarter of his kingdom was just missing from his magical senses. He had tried flying the labyrinth and yet some parts were dark, just gone as if out of his range of understanding. Which made no sense because simply put it hadn't vanished for the rest of his kingdom. He saw the goblins roaming in and out of these dark spots with ease yet he himself had no way to get there.

A scream of frustration from the owl as he flew back to his castle though once there he wasn't sure what to do. This was outside of his realm of understanding and though his power hadn't decreased, he could feel those holes like wounds in his mind bringing on a rather horrible mental strain. It was even painful, if this was what pain was; having never experienced it before he could only surmise that in truth that is exactly what it was.

A few choices curses, and boots stomp towards the throne room kicking small fuzzy mishapen creatures along the way. Not that they minded, as a whole most of the populace of his kingdom were that of the same breed, and almost rubbery goblinoids. Truth be told they bounced more often than they were hurt only to spring up in more vigurous numbers. It was there on his throne he first saw the intruder, a creature that had some vague resemblance to someone who could not possibly be here. The goblins around this intruder were dancing in delight and laughing as they would around HIM.

This person was stealing HIS subjects, happened to be seated in HIS throne, and had cleaned HIS throne room. A few inarticulate words fall from his lips as SHE just smiles and flicks her hand back and forth before she whispers softly in a very familiar voice.

"Hello Jareth."

It was impossible, improbably and just not possible.. his mind was moving in this circle as he tried to get some hold on his mental state, the ache in his head growing stronger. Anger that was the word, something he understood and had felt before, as one hand rose and he pointed..

"What are you doing here?"

The self contained little smirk never left her face.. "I belong here."

The only returning answer was another string of curses as the spoiled boy king threw a crystal at Her, only to have it shatter in front of her.

The strange little grin never leaving her face, she vanished but his throne did so along with her.

All that could be heard from the throne room for a good long time was that of frustrated and terribly inarticulate screams of fury.

She snickered as she sat in the throne that was now hers, dark hair dangling down to the floor from where she sat. The swarms of what her Jareth would call traitors dancing about the circle of stone that happened to be the beginnings of her own lair. Sarah as she had decided to stay in name had no need of the elaborate castle that sat in the center of the labyrinth as that had always been the domain of the King of the kingdom. No, hers was a garden of elaborate stone collumns and beautiful open gazebos. She didn't see the need to change it save for the few things she had added in the interum. And of course the game was just beginning, the snickering sounds of the strange little fairies that had followed her all the way here, glad to have found the Queen was back and ready to play.

For the labyrinth was not just the kingdom of the small squat goblins that frolicked about their king, it was also the home of a certain species of fairy that was more in kin with the goblins that lived there, than their more gentle brethren. These small creatures had been without a guiding hand for a long time; and now that the Old had given them this bright playful thing to frolick with they had gathered in hoards to play in this hidden garden that was the true center of the labyrinth.

It was from here, on the elaborate throne that the Lady pondered what she was to do next, before the slumbering power beneath her feet and always within the back of her mind pushed her to follow another link outwards and to leave the safe haven that was this place that Jareth could not touch.

She understood the magic that came to her call now, though it had taken a long time to master in the timeless garden and with less than a sweeping arm motion she found herself pulled along the link and facing a masculine power across the other end of another garden in another place. It was here the nameless presence had wanted her to meet another old master of games, the last of his kind too but far to calculating and sly to give up his power in lue of another.

This one was just as familiar as the one she tormented and played with; but he wasn't the such that was too easily played with either. She was still Sarah after all and that prompted her words, mortal ways are still hard to forget when one spent her life that way.

"You are him aren't you? You are the Woodland king."

A smile touches the perfect face, dark in hair where Jareth was light.. green eyes that almost matched her own. Breathlessly he spoke his power surrounding them both, a taste but not dangerous just a touch to remind her that he was still the elder of the two.

"Yes I am Oberon, do you know why you are here?"

A moment of uncertainty, she is still young after all in the way of the world and as imperfect as any young thing. A shake of her head as she takes a hesitant step backwards remembering the last time she felt as helpless as she did now. Not surrounded by her safe haven she was just another of the creatures of the underground.

"You feel it don't you? The lack of true power here? That is the way this world works, and that is what I am to teach you if you wish to succeed in your goals. The one who gave you this power couldn't give you what I can, the knowlege of how to work witout the power that you gain from the heart of the Old place."

She listens and nodds taking a few more steps forward as he motions to the pool in front of them..

"Sit child, sit and learn from one who would be your Father in this place, if things go as they need too."

So the spoiled little girl sat, and began to learn from the Elder, as the Boy never would. For that was her strength the ability to endure and to learn, the thing that the Fae had begun to lack in their arrogance. For though she was just as arrogant, she was her Goblin King's equal and had been even before the tipping of the scales.

This would just be the beginning of the battles, and the wars.. and the way things would work forever in the Labyrinth.

For things never change, yet everything changes in the Underground.


End file.
